When applying an ostomy pouch, it is important that the pouch is correctly positioned around the stoma. In order to ensure proper positioning it is desirable for the user to inspect the stoma. As the stoma will be covered by the pouch, this inspection can take place by looking through an ostomy pouch with transparent side walls or at least a transparent portion of the side walls. Examples of such pouches are known from e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 3,570,490 and WO 2008/150991.
In the pouch disclosed in WO 2008/150991 two panels are provided, one panel covering on the top of the pouch and a second panel covering the lower part of the pouch. These two panels are slightly overlapping without being sealed to each other across the pouch. This arrangement allows the user to manually separate the overlap to inspect the condition of the stoma.
Although this allows for visual inspection of the stoma, during the application of the pouch onto the user's skin it can be difficult for the user to see what he or she is doing since the user will be looking at the stoma area from the top. It is most likely that the user will position the pouch and inspect the stoma condition via a mirror. This however may be somewhat inconvenient and difficult as this only gives the user an indirect view of the stoma and the pouch. In some situations the user may be assisted where it may be a nurse or other healthcare staff who will inspect and change the ostomy pouch. In this situation the assistant will have a better direct view, but he or she is not always available for the ostomy pouch user. So although visible inspection is possible it is inconvenient for the user to do.